Ex-Romeo mail carrier charged with theft of gift cards, cash

A carrier for the U.S. Postal Service in Romeo has resigned after being charged with stealing cash, gift cards and other contents from mail she delivered on her route, according to federal court documents.

Cynthia Winters was charged Monday with mail theft before U.S. Magistrate Judge David Grand in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit. She was released on a $10,000 bond and has a preliminary hearing scheduled for March 21.

A criminal complaint states Winters told officials with the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General that she stole approximately 20 items from the mail in a period between the summer of 2012 and Feb. 14 of this year.

Court documents show postal officials had received reports on the mail theft complaint hotline from people who had mailed currency and gift cards from the Ray Township area in northern Macomb County and the recipients never received the items. The complaints stated that in the case of stolen gift cards, some of the cards had been used.

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Postal officials then launched an investigation.

One of the complaints came from a man who mailed two $100 Target gift cards to relatives from a mailbox on 32 Mile Road on Dec. 19. The envelopes arrived before Christmas but had been torn open and the contents missing. The man contacted Target, who told him one of the gift cards had been redeemed at a Target on 26 Mile Road in Shelby Township. The other card, a Lowes gift card, had not been redeemed and the sender canceled it.

Officials then went to the Target store on 26 Mile to check surveillance video and found the customer was a white woman who used it to purchase two Xbox 360 games totaling $121. She used cash to make up the difference.

A photo of the video was shown to a Romeo post office supervisor who identified the person as Winters.

A second complaint came from a postal customer on 31 Mile Road who said he mailed 25 Christmas cards with $50 BP Fuel gift cards to family, and three of the cards were never received. The customer contacted BP Fuel, which informed him the cards had been redeemed on Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

The cards were mailed on Winters' route.

Postal inspectors then put a test letter in the mail on Feb. 13. The letter, marked "U.S. currency," had two $20 bills in it and was included in Winters' mail that she was supposed to deliver that day. The letter contained a device that would send a signal when the envelope was opened, according to court records.

A few minutes after Winters began her route, the test letter went into alarm mode. Agents pulled her over in the parking lot of the Ford Engine Plant on 32 Mile Road and took her into custody.

During a search of her vehicle, agents found a VISA gift card that was addressed to a customer on her route, along with the test letter and cash in her purse.

During questioning, Winters first blamed a substitute carrier for the thefts, then changed her story.

"I have six kids and 17 grandchildren. I didn't have anything to give them so I would look for the gift cards and cash inside the mail. I gave my son the BPF gift cards to use," she said, according to court records.

Agents then showed her a videotape of her using the Target gift cards with her daughter and her boyfriend, and Winters confessed, documents show.

She faces up to five years and could be ordered to pay restitution if she is convicted on the federal charges.